I'm just going to point something out...

Then why do you keep talking about attracting new members?

Also, the bar analogy is accurate, you may not be making money, but you want to attract more "customers"

I see we have another of those quality staff guys here.

But you just proved my point. You guys get a little criticism and you become insulting and dismissive.

Archie has a nerd boner for fighting authority. Doesn't matter who's in charge.

A local NRA chapter might want more members, but I doubt you'd get much traction in persuading them to support gun control to get them.

There are countless places on the internet to chat. If I want millions of people, I'd go to Facebook. If I want tens of thousands of active members, I'll go to the Something Awful forums (where I post a fair bit). When I come to Wordforge its because I like the atmosphere and freedom here.

You just seem to be coming at it from a different perspective to everyone else. Most people are saying that they like what we have here, and it would be improved if there were new posters as part of it. You're approaching it from the perspective of new posters being the most important thing.

edit: I actually wouldn't mind if we changed the title from staff to volunteers or something. Staff are for the most part just members who are trusted to have access to some extra buttons.

Volpone talking about outting someone?

It's the Red Room, sport.

Bailey has a point. This whole board was created BECAUSE we didn't like being told what we could or couldn't say in TNZ. Changing that is something that would most likely split the board and would certainly lead to a severe decline in membership.

To use your bar analogy, we want to try and get some new members into our neighborhood pub through a variety of ways, we'll spruce the place up, get a new pool table, maybe get on the trivia circuit to try and get some of the younger people in, maybe try out having live music on friday nights, heck might even try and organize a staff/customer rec league team. Who knows, we're will to try most anything that doesn't violate the spirit of the place.

What we aren't going to do at this time is gut the place on a whim and turn it into a martini bar/night club with a dress code and $10 cover.

Then just admit you don't want new members.

I want new members. You, not so much.

You guys sound like a Dilbert comic I once read "We want to increase profits without spending money or changing anything".

That's actually a pretty solid management team from top to bottom, and I have little-to-no room for complaint. Here I was thinking half the board had been made mods from Volpone and Archangel's posts.

Of the ass?

Categorically and demonstrably false. We already have changed things (and spent a couple hundred out of our own pockets to do so), and we will continue to try out new things.

Just b/c we don't want to do a top to bottom overhaul in no way means we aren't changing or that we don't want new members.

I'm beginning to think your whole 'Staff doesn't listen to the members' complaint is more of a 'Staff doesn't listen to me' complaint which doesn't make any sense either as we've been listening to your ideas and discussing them all night.

We just don't think some of them are good ideas.

Again, different perspectives and that isn't what is happening.

For a company getting profits is the most important thing, it's the entire reason they exist. Wordforge isn't here for profit. There is no benefit to having an increased userbase other than there being more people to be involved in discussions.

That's why I asked what you want Wordforge to be, because that's what should be the most important consideration. Wordforge exists to be a place for its members to have discussions about issues in the way they like. It doesn't exist for the purpose of simply existing.

You seem to have latched onto the attracting new members idea as the most important thing, as what should be the primary motivator for all decisions on the board. Since you see it that way, you assume that is the most important thing for other people as well, when it isn't. Instead read it as being a case of "We like what we have here, it would be nice to share it with more people".

You don't listen to anything that isn't completely trivial. Just because I don't want to be on staff here does not mean I have no experience being on staff on a forum that is several orders of magnitude larger than this one and an in game admin for a major MMO. I know what works with forum and game "customers" and what does not. You can dismiss it as me just being mad you won't listen to me all you like, but I'll lay odds I have far more experience in this area than most of you. As I've stated before, if you want to just cater to the core group that is here, that's completely up to you. You just need to stop paying lip service to trying to draw in new members.

when the changeover was announced drawing in new members was a big talking point by the new owners.

Attracting new members is a means to an end, not an end unto itself. The entire point is keep this place that we've spent 10 years hanging out at alive and a fun place to be. As the membership has contracted over the years discussion has stagnated (go compare College Football Threads through time). We want new blood to bring new perspectives, positions, and discussions and to breath new life into old classics (like the College Football Thread).

Honestly if we could just get back to the level of posting and number of members we had back in the day I'd consider my year as leader a total success. I don't think we'll get there in a year, but I hope to at least turn the corner and start trending up.

It's a big talking point, but it's not the primary motivation behind the existence of the board.

I give up.

The ass?

False. The board software was chosen based on member recommendations. Stripping out the Facebook and Twitter shortcuts was done based on member feedback, we've let members direct skins... Heck, what decisions have we made where member input wasn't considered?

Three pages in and Volpone has still to let us in on what the new owners have been up to that’s so bad?
Granted, Archangel has had his turn and its clear he’s trying to squeeze wordforge into ideal world message board rules, without considering the history of WF and how it was formed. Maybe the Archangel stuff should be given its own thread as its clearly got legs.

Which brings us back to Volpone’s bomb. Either he’s been terminated like Clyde, died like Gul did a few years ago or has morphed into Midnight Funeral, posting a topic and then running off without discussing it.

Well so far this thread looks to be as successful as the government shutdown!

I'm guessing the third option. Or he'll come back and pull a Pee Wee:

I cannot tell you how much I'm enjoying this.

Nothing changed and the corrupt are still in charge?

Everything is proceeding according to plan.

Ya know, I'd start a thread saying how nice it is that the ownership change went off without a hitch, but it seems so bloody obvious I can't see the discussion going anywhere. But if it needs to be said, I think you lot are doing fine. (Of course, I can't say that without attracting accusations of a liberal bias in the new ownership, but what can you do?)

My greatest regret so far is that the Packard banning didn't hold. But at least we managed to get him on double secret probation!